's barons or members of that court,
though probably in general none attended who were not specially
summoned. It has been already observed that this would not include all
the king's tenants in chief, and particularly those who did not hold of
him as of his crown, or even to all who did hold of him as of his crown,
but not by knight-service or grand serjeanty, which were alone deemed
military and honourable tenures; though, whether all who held of the
king as of his crown, by knight-service or grand serjeanty, did
originally owe suit to the king's court, or whether that obligation was
confined to persons holding by a particular tenure, called _tenure per
baroniam_, as has been asserted, the Constitutions of Clarendon do not
assist to ascertain." (p. 45.) But this, as they point out, involves
the question whether the _Curia Regis_, mentioned in these
constitutions, was not only a judicial but a legislative assembly, or
one competent to levy a tax on military tenants, since by the terms of
the charter of Henry I., confirmed by that of Henry II., all such
tenants were clearly exempted from taxation, except by their own
consents.

They touch slightly on the reign of Richard I. with the remark that "the
result of all which they have found with respect to the constitution of
the legislative assemblies of the realm still leaves the subject in
great obscurity." (p. 49.) But it is remarkable that they have never
alluded to the presence of tenants in chief, knights as well as barons,
at the parliament of Northampton under Henry II. They come, however,
rather suddenly to the conclusion that "the records of the reign of John
seem to give strong ground for supposing that all the king's tenants in
chief by military tenure, if not all the tenants in chief,[460] were at
one time deemed necessary members of the common councils of the realm,
when summoned for extraordinary purposes, and especially for the purpose
of obtaining a grant of any extraordinary aid to the king; and this
opinion accords with what has generally been deemed originally the law
in France, of other countries where what is called the feudal system of
tenures has been established." (p. 54.) It cannot surely admit of a
doubt, and has been already affirmed more than once by the committee,
that for an extraordinary grant of money the consent of military tenants
in chief was required long before the reign of John. Nor was that a
reign, till the enactment of the Great Charte